Report reveals Perth drivers know they’re making congestion worse – but they don’t care
Report reveals Perth drivers know they’re making congestion worse – but they don’t care
Perth is the longest city in the world (apparently) because of urban sprawl. The article is exactly right in that the city is entirely dependant of being able to travel from work to home and that commute is both ling and decentralised.
In my completely uneducated opinion if there was affordable high density housing around business areas, or if commercial/industrial areas were more uniformly spread amongst the suburban housing then public transport and other methods (such as cycling) would be more viable options (when commutes arent so rediculously far).
Why the government needed an FOI to release this i don't know. Its not exactly surprising given, as they say, the nature of our transport infrastructure.
Now what dot needs to do is accept the poor historic choices made and work within the system we have to reduce tge car reliance for as many, as soon as possible. That does not mean trains (too much new construction required), or even bikes (distances are too great) unfortunately. Though hopefully we can build them in slowly.
What is needed is a complete transformation of our bus infrastructure. The buses need to have more frequency, and a rollout of frequent CATs for every LGA for intra-city/township transport. These CATs will relieve pressure on the 'big green limousines' to wander about suburbs looking for passengers, as well as give more felxibility for more specific routes in those suburbs that the smaller CATs can get to more easily.
A two tiered synchronised bus system will be the cheapest and quickest transport solution to cars. Because they require much less changes to Perth's infrastructure, or people's lifestyles, if we get them frequent and flexible enough to become a reasonable replacement for some car trips.
I think the inner 10km around the CBD needs to prioritise public transport, then active transport over private cars. More bus lanes, actual cycle infrastructure (not murder strips / paint), traffic lights that favour buses / active transport.
It's gonna take decades. Even then, in WA we're so isolated, even if we have heaps of non-car transport infrastructure it's tricky to see people weaning themselves off cars completely, because we have the Perth hills and the Southwest on our doorstep. Tricky to have a long weekend in Busselton without a car.
Tricky to have a long weekend in Busselton without a car
But it’s literally called Busselton!
I mostly agree.
With the wineries, for instance, people drive up and down caves road to get to the places they feel like. But a lot of the wineries' cellar doors are actually clumped quite close together, no more than a 5 or so minute walk between them. So there is a fairly simple behavioural change people could make. The key problem is people aren't thinking in terms of visiting a small area to sample the wines from those few fields, they think in terms of individual winery venues.
Its also a problem that for most of caves road and the ancillary network, there is no pedestrian infrastructure. Not even between wineries and other venues that are clumped together. (M.River, and Duns townships excluded of course)